{"id":16398,"date":"2024-04-09T19:17:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=16398"},"modified":"2024-04-09T19:17:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:17:41","slug":"the-politics-of-the-last-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/the-politics-of-the-last-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of the Last Announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) published a comparatively critical review<\/a> <\/span>of the government\u2019s Budget 2024. Criticisms of \u2018bad budgeting\u2019 arose from the \u2018lack of transparency,\u2019 and the use of \u2018fiscal gimmickry.\u2019 IFAC defined the latter as \u2018creative accounting techniques\u2019 used to make the numbers \u2018look more favourable than they are.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The Irish Times<\/em> described this<\/a><\/span> as \u2018an extraordinary broadside against the Government\u2019, with RTE referring<\/a><\/span> to IFAC\u2019s assessment as \u2018controversial.\u2019 However, as IFAC made clear in February<\/a><\/span>, they were standing firm behind their \u2018perfectly valid\u2019 analysis which they stated was backed by \u2018substantial evidence and reasoning in support of this conclusion.\u2019<\/p>\n

This episode had me wondering whether similar kinds of \u201cfiscal gimmickry\u201d are at work outside of budget time, specifically when Ministers are out making what are nominally \u2018new\u2019 funding announcements. You will of course be familiar with this type of thing.<\/p>\n

It goes something like this: a Minister appears on RTE, or broadcasts via their social media platforms, that they are \u2018delighted\u2019 to be announcing x million for some initiative. Now the ordinary person probably never stops to consider whether this is new expenditure for a new program, additional expenditure for an existing program, or simply existing expenditure for an existing program.<\/p>\n

But to be fair to the average voter, there are a few Ministers that probably never to stop to ask this question themselves. What matters to them is that they are out and seen to be doing things \u2013 energy in lieu of action. If taking a bit of creative licence results in positive media coverage, then some see that as all well and good.<\/p>\n

I must confess that for some time I\u2019ve been puzzled by how some Ministers seemed to be making \u2018new\u2019 multi-million announcements every other week, whilst for others such announcements were few and far between. So, I thought I would investigate the matter. As we\u2019ll see, this is where a kind of \u201cfiscal gimmickry\u201d meets the \u2018the politics of the last announcement.\u2019<\/p>\n

In Table 1 we can see the number of funding related announcements made by all our current government ministers (excluding the Taoiseach) in 2023. We have a total of fourteen Ministers spread across seventeen Departments. The median amount (think middle value) of funding announcements made last year was 11.5, so just under one funding announcement per month.<\/p>\n

As we can see, half of our Ministers made less than this, and some significantly less. For instance, Messrs McGrath (6) and Donohue (5), perhaps the two Ministers most associated with the word \u2018prudent\u2019, were certainly amongst the most judicious. The same goes for Minister McEntee (4), although she was off on maternity leave for a period.<\/p>\n

Just three Ministers; Harris (32), Martin (30) and Humphreys (21) were significantly higher. But to be fair to Heather Humphreys she is Minister of two departments (Social Protection\/Rural and Community Development), so it\u2019s really just Harris and Martin that were so far ahead of the pack.<\/p>\n

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Frank Armstrong commends Miche\u00e1l Martin for laying out his political philosophy, but takes issue with his claim to occupying a 'liberal' middle ground.@frankarmstrong2<\/a> @paddycosgrave<\/a> @BowesChay<\/a> @MichealMartinTD<\/a> @vincentbrowne<\/a> @connolly16frank<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/JjCnwzRIc2<\/a><\/p>\n

— CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) June 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n